Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1891 — Page 3

CHRIST OR FAMINE.

Pine-Struck is the World of Sin. liall Not See My Face Exqept Yonr Irother Be With Yon—Dr. Tal- ; mage's Sermon. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn last Sunday. Te:%; Gen. xliii, 13. He said: This summer,having crossed eighteen of the United States, North, South, East and West, I have to report the mightiest harvests that this country or any other country ever reaped" If the grain gamblers do not somehow wreck these harvests we are about to enter upon the grandest scene of prosperity that America has ever witnessed. But while this is so in our .own country, on the other side of the Atlantic there are nations threatened with famine, and the most dismal cry that is ever heard will I fear be uttered—the cry for bread. I pray God that the contrast between - our 'inosiJet'iLy and~ their want may not be as sharp as in the lands referred to by my text. There was nothing to eat. Plenty of corn in Egyt, but ghastly famine in Canaan. The cattle moaning in the stall. Men, women and children awfully white with hunger.—Not the failing of one crop for one summer, but the failing of all the crops for seven years. [The preacher then related the story of the visit to Egypt for corn, and continued:] “Well, my friends, this world is famine-struck of sin. If does not yield a single crop of solid satisfaction. It is dying. It is hungerbitten. The world is poor compensation, poor satisfaction, poor solace. Famine in all the earth; not for seven years, but for 6,000. But,blessed be God, there is a great corn crib. The Lord built it. It is in another land, It is a large place. An angel once measured it, ant Pas far as I can calculate in our phrase that corn crib is 1,500 miles long and 1,500 broad and 1,500 high, and it is full, food for all nations. “Oh!” say the people, “we will start right away and get this supply for our soul.” But stop a-mo-ment, for from the keeper of that corn crib there comes this word, saying: “You shall not see my face unless your brother be with you.” In other words there is no such thing as getting from heaven pardon, and comfort, and eternal life, unless we bring with us our Divine Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. Coming without Him, we shall fall before we reaeh the corn crib, and our bodies shall be a portion for the jackals of (he wilderness; but, coming with the Divine Jesus, all the granaries of Heaven will swing open before our soul, and abundance shall be given as. We shall be invited to sit in the palace of the King and at the table; ind, while |he Lord of Heaven is apportioning from His own table to Other tables, He will not forget us; fnd then and there it will be found that our Benjamin’s mess is larger than all the others, for so it ought to be. “Worthy is the Lamb that, was slain, to receive blessing, and aches, and honor, and glory, and

. power.” I want to make three points. Ev?ry frank and common sense man will acknowledge himself to he a sinner. What are you going to do with your sins? Have them pardoned you Say. How? Through the mercy of Sod?' Is it tfieTetting down of a bar" for the admission of all without respect to character? Be not deceived. I see a soul coming up to the gate of mercy and knocking at the corn-crib of heavenly supply, and a voice from within says: “Are you alone?” The sinner replies: “All alone. ” The voice from within says: “You shall not see my pardoning face unless your Divine Brother, the Lord Jesus, be with you.” O, that is a point at which so many are discomforted. There is no mercy from God except through Jesus Christ. Coming with Him we are accepted. Coming without Him w<j arc rejected. Peter put it right in his great sermon before tne high priests, when he thundered forth: “Neither is there salvation in any other. There is no other name given under heaven amoim men whereby we may be saved;” O, anxious sinner! O, dying sinner! O, lost sinner! all you have got to do is to have this Divine Benjamin along with you. Side by side, coming to the gate, ail the store houses of heaven will swing open before your anxious sdul. Am I right in calling Jesus Benjamin? O, yes. Rachel lived long enough to give a name to that child, and with a dying kiss she called him Benoni. Afterward Jacob changed his name, and he called him Benjamin. The meaning of the name she gave was “Son of my Pain.” The meaning of the name the father gave was “Son of my Right Hand.” And. was not Christ the Son of pain? All the Sorrow of Rachel jn that hour, when she gave her child over into the hands of strangers, wa% nothing compared with the struggle of God when He gave up His only Son. The omnipotent God in a birth throe! And was not Christ appropriately called “Son of the Right Hand?" Did not Stephen look into Heaven and see Him standing at the right hand of God? And does not Paul speak of Him as standing at the right hand of God making intercession for us? O Benjamin! Jesus! Sdn of pain! Son of victory! The deepest emotions of our souls ought to bo stirred at the sound of that nomenclature. In your prayers plead His tears. His sufferings, His sorrows and his death! If you rtefuse w tp do ft all the corn-cribs and palaces

of heaven will be bolted and barred against your soul, and a voice from the throne shallstun, you with the announcement: “You shall not see my face except your brother he with you.”., ' My text also suggests the reason why so many people do not get any real comfort. You meet ten people: nine of them are in need of some kind of condolence. There is something in their health, or in their state, or in their domestic condition that demands sympathy. And yet the most of the world’s sympathy amounts to absolutely nothing. People go to the wrong crib, or they go in the wrong way. When the plague was in Rome a great many years ago there were eighty men who chanted themselves to death With the litanies of Gregory the Great —literally chanted themselves to death, and yet it did not stop the plague. And all the music of this world can not halt the plague of the human heart. I come to some one whose ailments were chronic and I say: “in heaven you will never be fort. What you want is a soothing power for your present distress. Lost children, have you that in ten years perhaps you will meet those loved ones before the throne of God. But there is little condolence in that. One day in a year without them, and ten years is a small eternity. What you want is a sympathy now—present help. I come to those of you who have lost dear friends and say: “Try to forget them. Do not keep the departed always in your mind.” How can you forget them when every figure in the carpet, and every book, and every picture, and every room call out their name. Suppose I come to you and 1 say: “God from all eternity, has arranged this trouble.” “Ah,” you say, “that does me no good. ’ Then I say: “With the swift feet of prayer go direct to the corn-crib for a heavenly supply.” You go. You say: “Lord help me: Lord, comfort me.’ But no help yet. No comfort yet. It is qjl dark." What is the matter? I have found. You ought to go to God and say : “Here, O Lord, are the wounds of my soul, and I bring with me the wounded Jesus. Let His wounds pay for thy wounds, His bereavements for my bereavements, ' His lonHness for my loneliness, His heartbreak for my hear-break. O, God for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ — the God, the man, the Benjamin, the brother —deliver my agonized soul. O, Jesus of the weary foot, ease my fatigue. O, Jesus of the Bethany sisters, roll away the stone from the door as our grave. ” That is the kind of prayer that brings help; and yet how many of you are getting no help at all, for the reason that there is in your soul, perhaps, a secret trouble. You may never have mentioned it to a single human ear, or you may have mentioned it to some one who is now gone away, and that great sorrow is still in your soul. After Washington Irving was dead, they found a little box that contained a braid of hair and a miniature, and the name of Matilda Hogman, and a memorandum of her death, and a re

mark something like this: “The world after that was a blank to me. I went into the country, but found no peace in solitude. I tried to go into society, but I found no peace in society. There has been a horror hanging over me by night and by day, and lam afraid to be alone.” How many imuttered troubles! No human ear has ever heard the sorrow. O, troubled soul, I want to tell you that there is one salve that can cure the wounds of thee heartland that Is the salve made out of the tears of a sympathetic Jesus. And yet solace; and you try chloral, and you try morphine, and you try strong drink, and you try change of scene, and you try new business associations, and anything and everything rather than take the Divine companionship mid sympathy suggested by the words of my text when it says, ‘’You shall not see my face again unless your brother be with you.” Oh, that you might understand something bf the height, and depth, and length, and breadth, and immensity, and infinity of God’k eternal consolations.

I go further, and find in my subject a hint as to the. way heaven opens to the departing spirit. We are told that heaven has twelve gates, and some people infer from that fact that all the people will go in without reference to their past life; but what is the use of having a gate that is not sometimes to be shut? The swinging of a gate implies that our entrance into heaven is conditional. It is not a monetary condition. If we come to the door of an exquisite concert we are not surprised that we must pay a fee,for we know that fine earthly music is expensive; but all the oratorios of heaven cost nothing. Heaven pays nothing for its music. It is all free. There is nothing to be paid at that door for entrance; but | the condition of getting into heaven ! is our bringing our Diviue Benjamin along with us.

D 6 you notice how often dying people call upon Jesus? It is the usual prayer offered —the prayer offered more than all the other prayers to—- “ Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.” One of qur congregation, when asked in the closing moments of his life. “Do you know us?” said: “O, yes, I know you. God bless you. Good-by. Lord Jesus receive ray spirit: and he was gone. O yes, in the closing moments of our life we must haveChrist to call upon. If Jacobs sons had gone toward Egypt.andhad gone with the very finest equipage, and had not taken Benjamin along with them,and to the question they should have been obliged to answer, “Sir,

we didn’t bring him, as father oould not let him go; we didn’t want to be bothered with him," a voice from within would have said: “Go away from us. You shall not have any of this supply. You shall not see my face because your brother is uot with you.” And if we pome up toward the door of heaven at last, though we come from all luxuriance and brilliancy of surroundings, and knock for admittance, and it is found that Christ is not with us, the police of bread-house, saying. “Depart, I never knew you.” If Jaoob’s sons, coming toward Egypt, had lost everything on the way; if they had expended their last shekel; if they had come up utterly exhausted to the corn-cribs of Egypt, and it had been found that Benjamin was with them, all the store houses would have swung open before them. And so, though by fatal casualty we may be ushered into the eternal world; Though we may be weak and exhausted by protracted sickness —if, in that last moment, we can only just, -stagger, and faint, and fall into thfa gate of heaven—it seems that all the corn-cribs of heaven will open for our need and all the palaces will open for our reception; and the Lord of that place, seated at His table, and the angels of God seatedat their table and the martyrs table, the king shall pass a portion from His table to ours, and then, while we think of the fact that it was Jesus who started us on the road, Jesus who kept us on the way, and, Jesus who at last gained admittance for our soul, we shall feel glad if He has seen the- travail of his soul and been satisfied, and not be at all jealous if he found that our divine Benjamin’s mess is five times larger than all the rest. Hail, annointed of the Lord! Thou art worthy. My friends, you see it is either Christ or famine. If there were two banquets spread, and to only one of them you might go, you might stand and think for a good while as to which invitation you had better accept, but here it is feasting or starvation. If it were a choice between oratorios, you might say: “I prefer the ‘Creation,’ ”, or “I prefer the ‘Messiah,’ ” But here it is a choice between eternal harmony and everlasting discord. Oh! will you live or die? Will you start for the Egyptian corn-crib, or will you perish amid the empty barns of the Canaanitish famine? “Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you.”

INDIAN FIGHTS TO A FINISH.

Rules Under Which One of the Principals is Sure to be Knocked Out, John T. Miller, of Fort Reno, Oklahoma, while seated in a group at the Laclede hotel St. Louis, pugilism being the topic of conversation said: “When you talk about a fight to a finish and knock-out blows both are witnessed in the aboriginal degree of perfection when a fight between two Indian bucks is seen in a ring, the circumstances of which is not a rope but a string of interested human spectators. It is a fact that among Indians of the same tribe, though they may number thousands, there are few* cases of quarrels among them that ever result ih murder. This is strange when it is rememberthat the Indian is passionate, uncontrolled in'his impulses, cruel and ferocious by nature. They have their difficulties and quarrels, however, but arbitration of the old men prevents bloodshed or murder.

“Yet once in awhile a fight occurs and it is a novel sight to witness. One buck challenges another to combat. and, accompanied by their friends to the battleground, each buck is stripped to the* nudity so pleasing in high-cultured art schools among the palefaces and made to confront the other. Between them lies a war club —* smooth, long piece of hard wood, seasoned by years of service and regarded as a sort of mas cot because of the bloodstains on it received during the war. The seconds of the surly looking duelists toss up a piece of bark on “the wet or the dry’ principle, when boys long ago chose sides in playiogOtown ball. The winner picks up the club and.his opponent, folding his arms, sturdily plants himself, bending his head, ft is the privilege to whack his antagonist just as hard as he can and with all the vigorous maliciousness he can command on the back. One blow is struck and then the man who has epdured it picks up the club and his opponent is subjected to all the force he can command. So the whacking goes,on, and almost every blow is a knock-down one. until the duelist last knocked down rises to his feet and refuses to accept the club from his opponent. He has bad enough and the party breaks up. “The severity of the punishment indicted and endured in these duels is marvelous. c . The club used has a jagged edge, and every blow struck brings blood, making deep cuts and fearful bruises. I have seen two such fights, and they are brutal and nauseating in the coolness of their procedure and tho,, appearance of both contestants after viefcegy is woj) and defeat confessed.” t ", i •* ' • M -

Mousseline da soie ip a favorite fabric for graduating dresses, and will also be used for Bummer-resort toilets and bridesmaids’ gowns. Paris modistes use it for parts ol youthful bridal dresses over whitesilk slips. ■ Econominize strength by sittine upon a big stool when p iping dishesor dressing-vegetables. A very handsome new summer stuff is China silk with a small raised figure scattered all over it. . , , .

THE REBELS WIN.

Decisive Battle at Valparaiso and the Fall of the City. Flt* Thousand Men Killed and Wounded— Balmaceda Flees and the Insurgents Take Possession-Full Details. The Yew York Herald of the 29th devotes a page to Chili news, its nows leader being the following dispatch: Valparaiso, Chill, Aug. 28.—Balmaceda’s power In Chili is broken. His army has been crushed after five hour’s hard fighting, and is scattered -beyond all hope of reorganization. . The revolutionists have taken possession of Valparaiso. The future of Chili for the time has been settled, and settled conclusively, on the hills to the east of the city to-day by the grim arbitrament of war. With Balmaceda practically a fugitive) without resources in men or money; wish the principal seaports of the country in the hands of the Congressionalists, and a consequent shutlingoff of all income from customs receipts, with President-elect Vicuna a refugee on board a German war ship and the country flocking en masse to the standard of the invaders, it is a matter of only a few days when the capital will fall into the hands of the revolutionary leaders. General Canto and his army won today’s battle by superior generalship, good Bard fighting, assisted by good fortune in the killing of Balmaceda’s generals, and the consequent demoralization of the army and the desertion of entire regiments. Ever since the arrival of the Congressionalist army at Vina del Mar there has been a constant series of maneuvers for position on the part of both Generals, as was indicated in Giese dispatches. Every day and nearly every hour of the day there have been skirmishes, in some instances amounting almost to battles. In nearly all of these the insurgents had the better of it. A close censorship of dispatches was established by Balmaceda, however) and only an inkling of reverses tohis arms could be got through. The position up to this mo-ning was, in brief: Balmaceda was not in a position to make an offensive movement and devoted his time and energies to making his defenses as strong as possible. Then all was hot harmonious in the military councils of the President. Both Generals Barbora and Alserecca wanted to have supreme command of the forces during the fight. iThis friction and jealousy resulted in almost an open rupture yesterday, and the ■two officers worked at cross-purposes. General Canto was in no hurry to move on the enemy because he was receiving constant accessions to his ranks from the people of the surrounding country, which Is Inhabited largely by those bound by ties of blood or of Interest to the leaders of the revolution, many of whom are natives of the province. Then he had a strongly intrenched position and could well afford to wait.

Early this morning the boom of cannon announced to the people of Valparaiso that a movement beyond tho ordinary ikirmishes had begun. The occasional loud reports of the heavy guns soon nvelled into one continuous roar, and then it was known that the final decisive struggle, which, at the cost of thousands of lives, perhaps, was to decide whether Bainaceda or the junta was to be the ruling power in Chili, had begun. General Canto’s position was on the hills above the race track at Vina del Mar, jutsido of the city, His raiders have been getting holder ani bolder as the time passed, and have been making excursions further in the country. He had absolute •ontrol of the railroad to Santiago and commanded the ordinary roads. Hence Santiago was practically in a state of 3iege, Affairs had come to such a pass that it was necessary for President Balmaceda to make some movo, and a little after daylight this morning the word was gives to Ittack the position held by the revolutionists, and, led by Generals Barbosa and Afzerecca, the government troops left their breastworks and advanced on the tnemy under cover of a heavy fire from their batteries. As soon as the approaching column got within range of the rifles as the insurgents a destructive fire was ppened by tho intrenched revolutionists. The government troops advanced with touch steadiness to the attack. They were soon near enough to do effectiv® work with their pieces, and the engagement became geneiai. Shot and shell, grape and eannistcr, and rille bullets tore through the ranks of the advancing troops lintll it became too hot, and despite the efforts of the officers they broke and retired almost in a panic. Officers worked like beavers to reform their columns as soon as they got without the danger of the deadly insurgent fire, and at last succeeded, k Then came another attack. In steady ranks the government troops started on a double-quick up into tho torrent of fire and lead, which blazed from the ranks of the insurgent army. Early in the second charge General Barbosa was shot down and killed. The lino wavered but kept on. Then General Alzerreea fell from his horse wounded unto death. He was removed from the field and died within an hour. Another break and then General Canto gave the order to charge. AVith a wild yell the Congressioualist army left thei r defenses and charged, on tho retreating army. Their artillery poured a deadly fi.rp into the ranks of Baimaceda’s army. The loss of their generals left them without a head, and ail the efforts of the subordinate officers to rally them to meet the onset of Canto's regiments and squadrons were of no avail. The retreat became a rout, the rout a panic, aud then cameutter demoralization. The goverment cavalry made a stand but It was short. Thoy were literally cut to pieces. Voiiey after volley was poured Into the demoralized mob of Balmacedists. Whole regiments which had not lost their regimental formation went over to the victorious troops of Canto and joined In the attack on their late comrades. Thcsa I deserters were generally tho volunteers,” who had been impressed into serviced

Balmaceda since the commencement of hostilities. Their sympathies have all along been with the Insurgents and they took this, the first opportunity, to go over to them. The fighting lasted a lHtle less than five hours, and its desperate character may be judged by* the fact that fully five thousand men were killed and, wounded. The country for miles around is filled with men, many of them wounded, who were this morning the dependence of President Balmaceda. The defeat of the government Is absolute and complete. There Is no possibility of a reorganization, and if he does not succeed in making his escape through the mountain passes, which are yet open, the chances are that he will be captured and shot. Early this morning stragglers from the battle-field began to come in. As the day wore on they came in greater and constant ly growing numbers and it became apparent that the government troops were getting the worst of it. The reports they brought in became more alarming. Presi-dent-elect Vicuna took tho alarm early and went abroad tho German flag-ship and asked protection of the admiral,which was granted. Then the intendente, Oscar Viel, sent a communication to Admiral Brown and the commanding officers of the other foreign fleets in the harbor, requesting them to send men ashore and protect their citizens as the probabilities were, that there might be trouble. A landing party of blue jackets and marines from the” San Francisco were ordered ashore by Admiral Brown and took up a i.osition about the American consulate. The other naval officers followed suit and soon there were enough foreign men-of-wars men ashore to protect the city against any possible outbreak. The streets of the city by 11 o’clock were filled with a disorganized mob of Balmacedian soldiers. The execution among the officers had been terrific. In addition to the two generals, Barbosa and Alzerreca, nearly alj the staff officers bad been either killed or wounded, and the fatalities among the line officers had also been great. An attack on the city was momentarily expected. To avoid the bloodshed which would naturally 7 have resulted from the victorious army entering the city, heated with the fire of battle, Admiral Viehl, the Intendente,sent a flag of truce to General Canto, with a proposition to surrender the city. It was accepted, and Senor Don Carlos Martinez, a Congressional leader, Who was refused a safe conduct from Balmaceda, and has remained in Santiago since the commencement of the revolution, directing the conduct of affairs for them in the south, was requested by General Canto to take possession of the city and act as Intendente until such time as permanent arrangements could be made. This he did. In the meantime there had been a general flight of the government officials here. Senor Walker Martinez left Santiago and joined General Canto aS soon as he heard of the landing at Quintero bay and bas been with him ever since.

Shortly after noon the victorious army began to enter the captured city from the hills to the southeast. General Canto, with his chiefs of stall,Colonels Holley an 1 Korner and Senor Walker Martinez, were at the head of the troops. As the insur gent troops, flushed with victory, marched through the streets they were greeted with the wildest enthusiasm. The people were wild with excitement, and the streets resounded with their shouts of “Viva Chili,” “Viva Canto.” Shortly after the entree of the army of Gen. Canto, Capt. Alberto Fuente3, of the torpedo boat Almirante Lynch, which was lying at the fiscal mole, was sum. moned to surrender. He attempted to steam oub and opened fire with his machine guns on the insurgent troops. A sharp engagement ensued, lasting fifteen minutes, and then Capt/Fuentes hauled down his flag and there was not an enenqy to the revolution from Fort Vandiva to Vina del Mar. , the government troops as were in the city or who came in gave up their arms and most of them were paroled. Guards were stationed in the streets to see that the crowds of disbanded soldiers and tho dangerous classes did not make trouble The city is as quiet as could be expected under the circumstances and no trouble i« expected. Nobody here has any knowledge of the whereabouts of President Balmaceda. The insurgent leaders are exceedingly anxious to find out where he is, and if they succeed in finding him the chances aro that it would go hard with him. The genera belief here is that he is making his way out of the country, perhaps overland to Buenos Ayres,

The Indiana Bureau of Statistics is making an entirely new departure this year under the law of ISB9. which require the investigation of labor questions. Soon after the passage of the act adding this duty to those of the bureau the Governor denied tho right of the Legislature to elect the chief of tho bureau, and the PeelleWorrell controversy then went into the courts. The appropriations mado by the Legislature were locked up in the treasury by the legal controversy and tho two rears passed without tiny investigations being made under the new law. Mr. Peel Iris now preparing- to- carry out thp nurposesof the law, and to this end will institute inquiries in every eity of the State into questions which affect the laboring classes, including wages, covt of living, hours of labor and general conditions as regards the prosperity of laboring men. This work will be done by special agents oi the hurean, who will gather the information by personally visiting the factories ol the State, and making inquiries in such manner as will give the work, when accomplished, all the value that surroundinvestigations made under direct authority from tne Legislature. Comparisons will be drawn between wages, cost of living and general condition of the classes in different cities and lnititiere.it trades, and it is expected to be able to present to the Legislature at its next session a volume which will lie of value to the legislator who desires to enact laws affectkig the laboring classes in the light of the knowledge of their real needs. Blanks have been prepared for the several trades or occupations. and the work of collecting tl e data will begiu early in the coining month, after which it will l>o gfonped in tabici and analyses made of the results.

STONEWALL ESCAPED.

The Dashing Rebel General Cam* Near Being Captured at Ball Run. 4

Stonewall Jackson was Vhe worst! rider in either army, says a writer inJ the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Hal wobbled about in the saddle like at man in a state of profound intoxica-i tion,and seemed every moment about! to fall off his horse. He never Jell/ but kept the spectators betting odds! with themselves that he would before! he had gone another hundred yards-' His wonderfully bad riding was a» well known in the Federal as in the! Confederate army, and once nearly led to his capture by an outpost, lii was during his famous march on Bult Run that Jackson and several members of his staff undertook to do A little reconnoitering on their own ac-. count. The weather was bad, and it) was wet and rainy, and they had on long waterproof coats that completely concealed their uniforms. They* completed their examination of the country they were looking over, and! turned to go back to their own lines,' when they found on nearing a bridge over a small stream, that the ap-i proach to it was guarded by a de-1 tachment of federal troops, having a piece of artillery which they had! planted on the road in a position from which it could rake the bridge.! Jackson did not hesitate a moment.) Galloping s up behind the men, he shouted out to the officer ip command: j “Who directed you to put that gun on the road? Take it away and mount it in the woods on the hill yonder. I never saw such a piece of folly. Here in the open ground your, men will be shot down from thef brush on the other side." On he went, as though in a terrible passion,; berating the officer, who colored, sa J luted, apologized, and hastily gave the orders for removing the gun. Jackson, with his staff at his heels,, galloped off to the left as though to pass down the stream, made a sudden turn, thundered across the bridge and escaped. The; befuddled officer in command had not gone far; when ho suspected something wrong' especially when he saw Jackson ana his party cross the bridge toward the enemy’s lines, and, conjecturing the truth from Jackson’s riding, got his gun into position and sent a shot after them. It was not, however, till the next day that he learned from a prisoner that his guess had been correct, and that the officer who fell into such a passion about the gun Was no other than the famous Confederate General.

PEOPLE.

Mark Twain is said' to allow himself three hundred cigars a month. J Mrs. U. S Grant is at Saratoga and has with her her sister-in-law, Mrs. Dent. Mute. Blavatsky’s successor a« least in England, is Lady Caithness. She is veiy rich. ~~ -- _ The King of Sweden has presented! the Town of New Sweden, Me., with fine library. The widow of Chief Justice Waite,; though 71 years of age, has dark hair and a comparatively unrinkled face. Mrs. Senator Wolcott is achieving the reputation of being the best dressed of the Senator’s wives in Washington. The only woman with the exception of Mrs. Grimwood who has received the Royal Red Cross, is Florence Nightingale. Frank Melbourne,“the rain king,” says that his storm machine is 10x15 and is operated by a crank. Who is the Crank. ■? Gov. Hill is growing stout, and a loud chorus swells from all over the country calling Mr. Chas. A Dana’s attention to the fact. The young King of Servia is one of the best educated boys in the country, and at fifteen years old is admittedly a marvel in mathematics. : P. D. Armour is the largest individual commercial operator in the world. His transactions last year reached the enormous aggregate of $63,000,000.

Prof. Roehrig, of Palo Alto University can speak thirty languages, l but he finds them all too inexpressive when the students get up a dogfight in the class-room. The largest salary drawn at present by any diplomatist, according to foreign papers,is that of sixty thousand dollars drawn by M. Wading-! ton, French ambassador in London-i The last descendant of the Maid of Orleans, according to foreign papers died recently in France. He was an! inspector in the commissary department of the army. Senator Harris, of Tennessee, is accounted the best parliamentarian in Congress. He is the oldest living Congressman, and is liable to stay in the Senate as long as he desires. New Hampshire lays claim to the oldest living college graduate in A. A. Parker of Fitzwilliam. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1814, and will be 100 years old if he lives until October 8.. The Czar is one of the few living banqueters, it is said, who can “drink a toast” according to the old style, swallowing the toasted applej liquor and all from the brimming cup. Miss Mary Proctor, daughter of the late Richard A. Proctor, has apr peared in the newspaper field as a contributor of scientific articles,, somewhat after the style of the exAstcouomer RoyalL. ' i